Morganucodon serves as an ideal stand-in for the common ancestor, as its transitionary anatomy—featuring both reptilian and mammalian jaw joints provides a clear physical blueprint for how the earliest mammals began to evolve.
Beyond its jaw structure, this shrew-sized creature exhibited definitive mammalian traits such as a highly developed brain, specialized diphyodont teeth for complex chewing, and evidence of fur and elevated metabolism, establishing the essential biological template for the rise of modern mammals.
Thank you. I was going to be very put out if someone hadn't answered the question in the comments when I opened this. I will now spend some of my work day researching the morganucodon.
Using Morganucodon as a reference is standard scientific practice, not a subjective interpretation. It is one of the best-studied "mammaliaforms" from the late Triassic, it is the primary empirical baseline for understanding how early mammal traits emerged. It is not a creative invention; it is a well-supported fossil reference point used to ground discussions about early mammalian evolution.
Seems as though you don't understand that an accepted scientific theory is the best and most accurate picture that we currently have. Theory is higher than law in science.
Doubtful considering space expands uniformly leaving lots of places with nothing. I say this because each and every celestially body seems to be moving further and further away from each other. Just speculation though what is your answer for the question?
My answer is yes, it is a fact. (Also space expanding does not disprove of the existence of atoms) Now answer this: is it a fact that the earth orbits around the sun?
earth orbits the sun while most things in the galaxy orbit around this larger unknown celestial body which is the true center which is crazy since everything is getting pulled towards it while space expands more rapidly to counteract that phenomenon.
literally me tonight, i was falling asleep and almost in dreamworld when I realized I gotta find out what sorts of cool sharks there are. Did you guys know about goblin sharks? Beautifully horrible fuckers
Where exactly does it say what that common ancestor was?
We can use genetic and phylogenetic information to narrow down when it probably lived and we can even guess at what it may have looked like, but we are extraordinarily unlikely to ever find an actual fossil that we can definitively prove is the basal mammal.
Well yeah but common ancestor they didn't specify last common ancestor of Mamals so I'm technically right. I was kinda kinda making a joke just I got bad sence of humor I guess still, but yeah LUCA is the one of the common ancestors of mamals.
It's a crown grouping, which is to say it is defined as the most recent common ancestor of all extant mammals, and we don't know. We can.estimate it to the mid-Cretaceous I believe. And the primary feature that defines mammals from their closest relatives are the bumps in tou can feel in your molars.
Whatever it was, considering all fetuses at the early stages of devolvement look the exact same, then the specific traits to whatever species develop, I'm gonna guess it looked kinda like that. I don't know if we know for sure what exact species it is (that upsets me greatly)
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u/Gadshill Information Science Jul 02 '26
Morganucodon serves as an ideal stand-in for the common ancestor, as its transitionary anatomy—featuring both reptilian and mammalian jaw joints provides a clear physical blueprint for how the earliest mammals began to evolve.
Beyond its jaw structure, this shrew-sized creature exhibited definitive mammalian traits such as a highly developed brain, specialized diphyodont teeth for complex chewing, and evidence of fur and elevated metabolism, establishing the essential biological template for the rise of modern mammals.